The Lost Generation
by TheFirstofApril
Summary: They were the lost generation; the ones killed, betrayed, and torn asunder by a community at war. But before all the fighting began they lived ordinary lives. This is their story before they lost their carefree innocence to the destruction caused by hate


**Disclaimer:** Although I lament the loss of such a great story idea (and the fact that I can't have the Marauders), I do not in anyway own the Harry Potter series or anything else owned by J. K. Rowling, except for that partially eaten baklava I stole from her garbage.

**The Lost Generation**

_By The First of April_

**Prologue**

_For certain is death for the born  
And certain is birth for the dead;  
Therefore over the inevitable  
Thou shouldst not grieve. _

**Bhagavad Gita**, Chapter 2  
(250 BC - 250 AD)

An owl swooped low over the dimly lit street, its wing tips gently brushing against the lampposts; its gray feathers and large eyes seeming out of place in this neighborhood of white picket fences and prize begonias. It was an owl of the wild and most definitely did not belong in such a prim and proper atmosphere and if the citizens were awake at the moment it most certainly would not be allowed. The owl remained oblivious to this point however and continued on, decisively, towards its destination which happened to be the bedroom of a young teenage girl, asleep in her bed at the moment but not for long.

The owl soared up to her window and began pecking at the window sharply, seemingly determined in its task to wakeup the entire household. The girl blearily opened an eye and, peering out through her mass of auburn red hair, noticed the gray ball of fluff. She lethargically climbed out of her warm bed and carefully made her way over the cold floorboard to the window. Reaching for it she quickly pulled the window open, allowing the slightly harassed looking bird to fly into her room, and then promptly slammed the window shut again so as not to let in the bitterly cold winter wind.

For a few moments all remained quiet, the girl staring fixedly at the owl and the owl glaring right back with almost the exact same glassy eyed expression. The silence was broken however when the owl emitted a low hoot and extended its leg with a piece of parchment attached to it. If this exchange seemed weird to the girl she certainly didn't show it as she quickly began to untie the letter and read its contents by the light of the full moon outside her window:

_Dear Lily,_

_I'm not sure how you're going to react to this news but there was another attack _

_on Christmas Eve. Dad said that it was similar to the one with Edgar's parents, a _

_giant green mark above the house and all the occupants killed with the Killing _

_Curse. This time it wasn't a ministry official however, they were Aurors. _

_Theodore and Cora Potter were killed! I just couldn't believe it when I heard, _

_they were the two most skilled Aurors in the whole division. If they can be killed so easily what chance do the rest of us stand? Luckily James and Sirius weren't there at the time; I think they were staying at the Lupin's. But can you imagine coming home to find both your parents dead and on Christmas Eve as well; it must have been horrible! I don't know how James is going to be able to handle this. I know you and he don't get along some the time (well all the time really) but try and be a little more sympathetic towards him this term, Merlin know he's going to need it. The funeral was today and I've never seen James look so lost, even Sirius couldn't reach him. I have a feeling Hogwarts isn't going to the same this term. See you on the train tomorrow. _

_Love Your Best Friend,_

_Camilla_

Lily stared unfocusedly at the parchment in her hand, reading her friend's careless scrawl several times before the information finally soaked into her thick skull. The Potter's were dead. She hadn't known them really, in fact the only time she had ever even seen them was when they had dropped their son James off at Platform 9 ¾, but that didn't make their deaths any less shocking. She had seen them only a week previous when she was getting off of the Hogwarts Express for Christmas holidays. They had looked so alive and cheerful then, Mrs. Potter hugging her son fiercely while Mr. Potter playfully rumpled his already messy hair. Now they were gone.

If you had asked Lily two hours ago if she would ever feel sympathy for James Potter she would have answered you with a definitive, "No bloody way in hell." But yet there she was, pitying the boy who had plagued her throughout all of her years at school; the boy who she found to be the biggest, most arrogant prick to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

She slowly sank down upon her bed and mindlessly started stroking Iris, Camilla's pygmy owl. The wizarding world was no longer safe, Voldermort was steadily gaining power and everyday the cover of the _Daily Prophet _reported more cases of witches or wizards found dead or missing. Anyone could become a victim and considering the fact that she wasn't an inbred like most of magical community she was right at the top of Voldermort's hit list.

With these thoughts floating around in her brain Lily sank back between the covers again and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning. It wasn't until right before dawn that she finally fell into a fitful sleep, her dreams plagued with images of hooded figures and dead parents. Only a few hours later however and much too soon for her liking, Lily was jarred awake by someone barging into her room; the door thrown open so hard that it rebounded off the wall, making a dent in the sheetrock.

"Where's my pink blouse. I know you stole it." A loud voice shrieked, reverberating throughout the recesses of the room and causing Lily's head to ring unpleasantly.

A hand roughly grabbed her and forced her into a sitting position.

"Where is it?"

The last dregs of sleep left Lily and she was finally able to identify her accuser (or attacker, depending on how you view the situation). The bony and quite red face of Petunia peered down at her with a look of pure vengeance clearly evident.

"What are you going on about now?" Lily replied to the assault drowsily.

"You stole my bloody shirt. That's what."

"What shirt. Can't you wear another one if you can't find it? You have a million of them."

"But it's my favorite pink shirt; the one with the heart's stenciled on the front." And then Petunia was off on a tangent describing every minute detail of the shirt in question and then continuing on to describe several other of her "favorite" shirts.

Lily just sat there, nodding occasionally and trying to feign interest while on the inside seething that Petunia would accuse her so readily and showing much disgust at the fact that Petunia owned a shirt with hearts stenciled on the front in the first place. Petunia's rant came to an abrupt halt however when Mrs. Evans called up the stairs for both her daughters to come down for breakfast.

Lily pushed past Petunia and stomped down the stairs; her highly strung emotions from the events of last night aroused even more by her aggravation at having to deal with her overbearing sister. She continued her warpath and burst into the kitchen a little overzealously, the sound of the kitchen door being practically swung off its hinges causing both Lily's parents to jump.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Mr. Evans commented jokingly.

"What's the matter?" Mrs. Evans asked, concern written all over her face.

"I'm fine, you'd bloody well be pissed too if you'd been woken up by a bony red-faced idiot yelling in your ear this morning." Lily shot back. She didn't want to concern her parents further by telling them the real reason behind her angst; they were better left in the dark about Voldermort and his latest victims.

"Lily! Don't speak about your sister in such a derogatory manner. And watch your language, haven't we taught you any manners?" Mrs. Evans simpered.

At that moment said bony red-faced idiot entered the kitchen wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a certain pink shirt with red-stencil hearts. Lily snorted in disgust as Petunia smirked at her. Normally Lily and Petunia had a pretty strong, sisterly relationship but ever since last summer, the year before Lily's sixth year at Hogwarts and right around the time Petunia started dating this disgusting man by the name of Dursley, Petunia had taken to insulting Lily during every conversation and haranguing her for every mistake made. Lily didn't understand this abrupt change in her sister's behavior and was loath to admit it but felt extreme upset by Petunia's dismissal of her. It hurt to have your sister cast you aside so easily just for the sake of a guy.

"Lily, are you all packed? We'll have to leave in about fifteen minutes in order to make it to King's Cross on time." Mrs. Evans already seemed to have forgiven her daughter's earlier indiscretions and had taken the route of being overly polite in order to show her forgiveness.

"Why don't I just Apparate there? I'm already seventeen and I passed my test."

"But honey don't you want us to be there to say goodbye?" Mrs. Evans asked slightly hurt.

Lily knew there was no way out of letting her parents come but she hated to give up so easily without a fight.

"Mum, that's really not necessary. It's only winter holidays, there's no need to see me off this time, really."

Fifteen minutes later however Mr. Evans had finished stowing Lily's trunk in the back of the car and the whole family, Petunia included, was on their way to King's Cross Station. During the first half of the trip the car remained awkwardly quiet as Lily and Petunia were still both mad at the other but their parents tried to break the icy atmosphere halfheartedly by engaging both girls in small talk.

"So are the professors going to work you hard this term, Lilykins?" Mr. Evans forcedly asked.

"Not any harder than they have been, I'm sure. I don't think it's possible for them to get any tougher." Lily replied obligingly and then returned to staring out the window at the cars whirling by in the opposite direction.

"Petunia, is that lovely boy Vernon taking you out tonight?" Mrs. Evans gushed.

"I guess so," Was Petunia's monotone reply.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans soon realized the futility in their attempts however and the car returned to its previous stony silence for several more minutes until the car finally pulled into the station's parking lot.

Lily quickly put her trunk on a cart and wheeled it into the station determined to reach the train as soon as possible and get away from her sister. At least at Hogwarts she wouldn't have to trouble herself over this complete change in Petunia's personality.

As they reached the barrier stationed between platforms nine and ten Lily made her hurried goodbyes, quickly kissing both her parents and nodding to Petunia, before rushing at the apparently solid brick wall. Just as she was disappearing through the magical barrier separating her world from her family's, she heard her mother call after her.

"And be sure to eat properly."

Lily rolled her eyes and grinned slightly at her mother's mollycoddling as she pushed her way through the rest of the magical barrier into the wizarding world, into the world where she belong.

The Hogwarts Express loomed up in front of her, emitting steam and hissing slightly. Just as she was about to drag her trunk over to the loading dock and try to find an empty compartment something solid with a mop of curly blond hair rammed into her and started hugging her fiercely, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

"Oh Merlin am I glad to see you. This holiday has been the worst ever." The mop of curly blond hair mumbled from the area of Lily's shoulder. And soon the mop slowly pulled back to reveal the face of a rather pretty teenage girl with large, hazel puppy dog eyes that gave her a slightly innocent look; although looks can be rather deceiving.

"Camilla, I'm sorry you should have owled me sooner. I could have apparated in for the funeral." Lily spoke consolingly.

"I didn't think you'd want to be in the same place as James over the holidays."

"Do you really think I'm that cold hearted? Or despise Potter that much?"

"Yes and yes." Camilla replied playfully, trying hard to provoke Lily.

"Oh, can you ever be serious?" Lily sighed exasperatedly.

"Oy, did I hear someone mention my name? Didn't know your were pining after me Evans." Replied a somewhat hollow sounding voice from behind the two girls.

Camilla and Lily whirled around and came face to face with two boys. Lily immediately recognized James, his black hair even in more disarray then usual and his clothes slightly rumpled; he definitely looked the worse for wear. He was staring down at the ground looking for all the world like a lost child; this was not the same arrogant prankster that Lily knew. It seemed as if all the life had been sucked out of him leaving only his body for a shell.

Lily slowly turned her gaze upon the second boy, the speaker, Sirius. Despite Sirius's earlier joking comments he looked just as bad as James, although he did a better job at trying to conceal his grief, and was obviously trying to use humor to alleviate the pain both he and James were feeling.

Lily felt the need to consol both these boys, despite her previous contempt of their arrogant behaviors but just then the whistle of the train started blaring and Lily settled for giving both Sirius and James a quick hug before climbing onto the train.

Hogwarts definitely wasn't going to be the same this term.


End file.
